We're not sure how willing or reluctant he was in the whole scheme, but with this engaging (if somewhat credulity-straining) thriller, Liam Neewson has continued his journey in the mature action-suspense territory largely vacated by Harrison Ford.
He proved with 2010's 'Taken" that he was up to the physical rigors of the genre and here again he ably shows his mettle. within an hour after arriving in the German capital of Berlin, Neeson's character has a near-death experience in a Mercedes taxicab (of which we see a lot in this movie), after it crashes into a river. The cab driver (and Neeson's rescuer) has fled the scene, leaving our hero comatose. He awakens with much of his memory gone, but the few snatches that pop up lead him ultimately back to the hotel where he and his wife (January Jones of "Mad Men" TV fame) initially went.
From this point on, the film cranks up the suspense, as the wife denies knowing him or even having met him and what's more, another man (Aidan Quinn) is claiming to be her rightful husband. With no documents to verify his identity, Dr Martin Harris (Neeson) must live by his wits as he tries to put the pieces together before the international bio-tech conference at which he was initially in the city to speak takes place.
Its heady stuff, what with the intervention of the aforementioned lady cab driver (Diane Kruger), a former East German secret police operative (Bruno Ganz) and the head of a global cell of assassins (Frank Langella), but Neeson handles it with just the right mixture of calm aplomb, stupefaction and brazen emotion. Director Jaume Collet-Serra shifts out of the psycho-horror thrillers of his recent past (House of Wax, Orphan) and moves things along briskly, but with care, allowing the characters and the narrative, not the action per se, to impress the viewer.
All in all, Unknown is an eminently watchable actioner, after Neeson's status among the action-suspense crowd will be anything but.
He proved with 2010's 'Taken" that he was up to the physical rigors of the genre and here again he ably shows his mettle. within an hour after arriving in the German capital of Berlin, Neeson's character has a near-death experience in a Mercedes taxicab (of which we see a lot in this movie), after it crashes into a river. The cab driver (and Neeson's rescuer) has fled the scene, leaving our hero comatose. He awakens with much of his memory gone, but the few snatches that pop up lead him ultimately back to the hotel where he and his wife (January Jones of "Mad Men" TV fame) initially went.
From this point on, the film cranks up the suspense, as the wife denies knowing him or even having met him and what's more, another man (Aidan Quinn) is claiming to be her rightful husband. With no documents to verify his identity, Dr Martin Harris (Neeson) must live by his wits as he tries to put the pieces together before the international bio-tech conference at which he was initially in the city to speak takes place.
Its heady stuff, what with the intervention of the aforementioned lady cab driver (Diane Kruger), a former East German secret police operative (Bruno Ganz) and the head of a global cell of assassins (Frank Langella), but Neeson handles it with just the right mixture of calm aplomb, stupefaction and brazen emotion. Director Jaume Collet-Serra shifts out of the psycho-horror thrillers of his recent past (House of Wax, Orphan) and moves things along briskly, but with care, allowing the characters and the narrative, not the action per se, to impress the viewer.
All in all, Unknown is an eminently watchable actioner, after Neeson's status among the action-suspense crowd will be anything but.
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